I finish my last bite of coconut and raspberry cake and push around the crumbs with my spoon. Lena and her husband, James, are sitting patiently with sympathetic faces. I’ve just finished telling them about what happened with Cole.

“It’s a nightmare,” I say. “I only did this in the first place to move on from Cole, and it’s Cole I end up meeting.”

Lena shakes her head, swilling around the last of her wine in its glass. “I find it a bit too hard to believe if you ask me. Seems like a ploy to get you back.”

“Ten years later?”

She shrugs. “If his career has failed, maybe he’s questioning his life choices.”

James is less skeptical. “I don’t know. Sounds plausible to me. We’ve all done it, haven’t we? Sent a message to the wrong person. I did it just last week at work. Sent a female colleague an email stating how annoying said female colleague was. Didn’t go down too well.”

“Even if it was a genuine mistake, don’t you think it was a jerk move to not warn me before we met?”

Lena nods. “That’s the part that strikes me as really odd. It wasn’t fair to put you on the spot like that.”

“I don’t think so, either.”

“Do you think he’s the sort to manipulate a situation that way?” James asks. He and Lena married six years ago, so all my drama with Cole was before his time.

I let out a long breath. “No. Not really. He was actually a really nice guy, apart from his complete lack of perspective.”

“It was all about that stupid camera,” Lena says, filling James in. She turns to him with her eyebrows raised, looking like a sassy talk show host. “He abandoned Sophie over and over so he could go take pictures.”

“There’s more to it than that,” I say. “He was pursuing a career.”

“At the expense of everything else.”

James nods. “If someone has a calling, it can be hard to draw the line.”

Lena elbows him. “Whose side are you on?”

“I’m just saying! He was a famous photographer?”

“For a while.”

“Well, maybe it was something he felt he had to do. Can you blame him for that?”

“I can blame him for pissing off to Sudan when their marriage was at a breaking point,” Lena retorts.

“Funny enough. Cole used the word ‘marriage’ yesterday,” I say.

Lena rolls her eyes. “So, he doesn’t see it an ‘elopement’ anymore? Wasn’t that his catchphrase when trying to shrug you off? We tied the knot too soon. We shouldn’t have eloped.”

“I’ve never heard the full story,” James says.

I take a deep breath, ready to explain. “We met in Italy when I was on my off-year and went on to Thailand together. We came back to the US for a couple of months while we planned a round-the-world trip, and then we took off. We had the time of our lives and eloped to Fiji. When we got back, we hightailed it straight to the licensing office and made it official. I was only twenty-one years old.”

Even though the situation is tense, I smile at the memory. It was the one reckless, impulsive thing I’d ever done. It backfired spectacularly and all ended in tears, but even now, I can’t say I regret it. That one year of wonder has seen me through every year since.

Lena shakes her head. “He stole Sophie’s future.”

“That’s a bit of an overstatement, Lena.”

“What are you talking about? You were headed for college.”

“I hadn’t even made an application.”

“But you’d always talked about going.”

“I didn’t even know what I wanted to study.”

“As soon as you met him, you stopped thinking about what you wanted for yourself. I’ve always blamed him for that.”

I fold my arms across my chest. “Do you really think I’m doing that badly? You know I’m up for promotion.”

Lena reaches over and lays her hand on my arm kindly. “You know what I mean. You might have made different choices if he hadn’t come in and swept you off your feet and then swept right out again.”

“He got it right last night when he said that we had different ideas of what a marriage would be. I expected us to settle down and start a future together. He expected me to wait for him while he carried on doing his own thing. As soon as we were back home, I felt like he was gone. Then he was asked to go to Sudan.”

“And he went?” James asks, his eyes wide.

“Of course, he went!” Lena said. “He’d rather get shot at in a war zone than settle down with Sophie. The whole thing was ridiculous.”

“Well, if you knew that about him when you met him—”

“When I met him, he was traveling, taking photos and trying to sell them after the fact. He was a travel photographer. Once we returned, he got the paper position, became super photojournalist man, and that was it. Everything he had went into his job. I was a second priority.”

* * *

I finish plating up the steak dinner I’ve made from scratch. A homemade pie is baking in the oven. I’ve never been much of a cook, but I want to make this night special. I feel like I haven’t seen Cole in forever.

I put on the white summer dress I wore when we visited the Himeji Castle in Japan. That was one of my favorite places. We stayed in a beautiful hotel, and there were cherry blossoms in bloom. It felt like being in a dream.

If only I can capture a little of that magic again tonight. Although Cole and I are living under the same roof, he seems so far away.

I light a candle and set it between the two dinner plates. It smells sweet, like incense. I close my eyes and imagine that Cole and I are back in that low bed in Hyogo. He used to hold me like he’d never let me go.

I open my eyes before the thought upsets me too much. I’m twenty years old and feel like a widow.

An hour passes, then another. Cole was meant to be home at seven p.m. As the evening rolls past, I cry. The dinner is ruined, and so is the romantic night I have planned.

It’s after three a.m. when Cole sneaks in like a thief.

I switch on the light and catch him sneaking in. “Where were you?”

He lays down his camera equipment and holds out his hands to placate me. “I’m sorry, Soph. Something came up.”

“What came up?”

“There was a shooting downtown.”

“Oh, I get it. You had another crime scene to flee to. You promised that you’d be here tonight. I’ve barely seen you all week. This isn’t what I imagined when you proposed.”

Cole runs his hands through his hair, and takes a step forward, to wrap his arms around me. I start crying again at his touch. This is all I wanted.

“I am so sorry,” he says sincerely. He looks over my shoulder at the remains of dinner. “This looks amazing. Did you cook it all yourself?”

I sniff, wipe my eyes, and nod. “It’s ruined now.”

“Of course, it’s not! That’s what microwaves are for. It looks way too good to waste. Let’s have dinner now.”

“It’s three in the morning.”

“It’s five ‘o’ clock somewhere.”

He heads to the table, picks up the plates, and sets the microwave. He picks up one of the wine glasses from the table and presses it into my hand, then wraps his arms around my waist, nuzzling his warm mouth against my neck.

“I’m so sorry, Sophie. Don’t be mad. I’m here now.”

* * *

“I hope you’re not thinking about seeing him again, Sophie,” Lena says. “I know you’re a grown woman and can make your own choices, but that relationship held you back for a long time. If you waste much more time pining over Cole, you’ll never meet the right guy and settle down.”

“I know,” I agree. “I’m not planning on seeing him again.”

“Good.” Lena nods in approval and begins to gather the empty dishes. “You don’t need to hold onto him, sweetie. You’re going to meet someone amazing who blows Cole out the water.”